Julia and Catherine

When I was a teenager I had a theory about women and beauty. It was a theory derived from a broad and meaningful sample: me. My theory was that the women whom other women think are beautiful are essentially idealized versions of themselves. I think mainly it had to do with hair.

Back then, I didn't understand what people saw in Farrah Fawcett. Jaclyn Smith was my Angel, no question. Jacqueline Bisset was another favorite (on my first date, in eighth grade, I went to see The Deep), and I was also partial to Brooke Adams, especially in Days of Heaven. These days, I fail to see the appeal of Kate Moss and Charlize Theron. But Julia Roberts and Catherine Keener are two of my favorite actresses.

Yes, Julia Roberts, and I'm not embarassed to admit it. I first loved her in Mystic Pizza (ok, I'm going to stop linking the movies now, but if you haven't seen Days of Heaven, which is probably the only one that needs to be linked, you really should--it's brilliant). I thought I'd seen all of her movies, but I just counted on IMDB, and I've only seen 14 out of 34. Time to get me some Julia Roberts movies. I won't recap them all, but I'll just say that Something to Talk About is the great unsung Julia Roberts movie.

I don't know why I love Julia so much. It can't just be that (most of the time) she has brown hair like me. It's something about the smile and the energy and the vulnerability and the way she's so real, even though she's such a movie star (I mean she's real on screen--for all my obsession with celebrity gossip, I am under no illusion that any of us actually know anything about the real lives of celebrities). Also, I'm partial to romantic comedies, and she tends toward reliably entertaining romantic comedies. Let's just say I'm a fan.

Catherine Keener is different, though now that I think about it, not really. Because what I was going to say about Catherine Keener is that, unlike Julia Roberts, I know why I like her, but in fact, the reason I like her is because she is so real--again, on screen; I know virtually nothing about Catherine Keener the person--in fact, I can't even manage to call her Catherine; to me she is always Catherine Keener.

Anyway, Catherine Keener makes weird edgy movies about real cranky oddball aggressive vulnerable all at the same time women. Or she makes mainstream movies and you get all proud that there's Catherine Keener, whom you treasured in Walking and Talking and Lovely and Amazing and even Full Frontal, out there showing everyone who goes to see The 40-Year-Old Virgin what it's like to be a real, interesting woman.

What made me think of all this was that last night I watched The Ballad of Jack and Rose which was just thoroughly absurd and disappointing--even Daniel Day Lewis, about whom I feel what every sentient intellectual woman into weird skinny intellectual guys feels, was disappointing. The one thing I liked about the movie was Catherine Keener. She was...well, she was real: a woman trying to make the best of a whole bunch of bad situations, loving except when she wasn't, brave and scared at the same time, ultimately needing the money as much as the love, and beautiful too, in her excellent Catherine Keener way.